Nasa engineers design manned deep-space craft Nautilus-X

While funds might be thin on the ground at American space
agency Nasa, and plans to go to Mars are a couple of decades off,
two engineers from the Johnson Spaceflight Center are already
developing concept vehicles that could make the trip.

This is one of them, the Nautilus-X
MMSEV from Mark Holderman and Edward Henderson. That cumbersome
acronym stands for Non-Atmospheric Universal Transport Intended for
Lengthy United States X-ploration Multi-Mission Space Exploration
Vehicle. We'll go with Nautilus-X, for short.

The vehicle isn't the most attractive spacecraft ever
designed, but it's specifically designed for ultra-long missions
and could support a crew of six for journeys ranging from one month
to two years. For reference, it took the Apollo missions about four
days to get to the Moon, and its estimated that the
trip to Mars would last eight to nine months.

To maintain the health of astronauts for such a long
duration, there's a 2001-inspired habitable centrifuge ring that
would provide artificial gravity to the crew. Being in zero-gravity for two years isn't particularly healthy, so this
spinning area would provide some partial gravity to the
explorers.

Nautilus-X would be made of both rigid and inflatable
modules, and feature elements like manipulator arms, docking
stations for other space vehicles, a landing craft for exploring
worlds, an ISS docking port, a hydroponic farm and an array of solar panels.

It would also be built over time. When it's first made, it
would be used as a way-point station between Earth and the Moon.
Eventually, an advanced propulsion module would be attached so it
can be used to jet off to distant planets and asteroids. The
vehicle would be built in low Earth orbit, by Nasa's own shuttles
and commercial rockets like Space X's Falcon 9.

If it ever did get made, Holderman and Henderson estimate
that the craft would cost Nasa a rather modest $3.7 billion, and
that would be spent over the course of 64 months -- a little over
five years.

Edited by Duncan Geere

Comments

How dreadfull is this the best they can do,thier idea of design is dreadfull,there is no futuristic design plus where are the future photon engines,and sheilding for astronauts etcsorry this get a thumbs down from me